Street merchants were calling their wares. People from out of town jostled each other in the streets. The air fairly hummed with activity.

The natives of Jerusalem looked at each other with a kind of benign resignation, a bewilderment of mixed emotions. They were harassed by this mob that came to the annual festival, but they were delighted with the growing jingle of shekels in the leather pouches strapped around their waists.

Bearded men walked by in lock-step precision. Their hands folded over protruding paunches; their phylactories strapped to their wrists; a blue fringe on the edge of their long sacred robes trailed occasionally in the dust. A look of condescending pride smoothed their jowls.

Little children, in an eternal game of tag, ran between the legs of the crowd. Their faces were dark and dirty, but their bright eyes and their glistening teeth sparkled in occasional explosions of joyous laughter and shrieking.

It was the scene of a marketplace bazaar.

Frightened sheep nudged each other along on quick, tiny steps, listening to the soft melodious cadence of the shepherd who called to them quietly.

The Sound of the Parade

From off in the distance, there came a noise -- a kind of rhythmic, staccato chant that wafted in .... now louder .... from the southern gate of the city.

A hush fell over the marketplace. People stopped talking 'to each other and turned their faces and their ears toward the sound. There was a recurring word you could hear -- "David? Lord? Hosea? Hosannah" -- that was the word that kept coming back. "Hosannah." It was more like a cheer than a chant.

It came louder now as people began to see the dust rising from shuffling feet. Elbows flew angrily as men pushed and shoved to get nearer to the sound of the noise. Hosannah! Hosannah! the recurring word rang out as the crowd drew nearer in this impromptu parade. Hosannah! over and over again, louder and louder, reverberating against stone walls.

A man came running ahead of the procession. He was saying something that people had to strain to hear: "Jesus of Nazareth is coming! The Prophet is coming! The man who raises the dead is coming! Hurry, Jesus is coming!"

The crowd began to move closer to get a glimpse of this strange prophet they had heard about. There were those from Galilee who had heard Him teach, those who had seen Him heal people. They now heard that the dead had been raised by Him. They ran to get another glimpse of this One who had preached and healed in their towns.

What they saw was a man moving serenely on the back of a small white donkey. The animal's mouth was inches from the ground, his large, wild eyes darting up and down in near panic from the press and the noise of the crowd that gathered around Him.

There was the slashing and whooshing of palm fronds as they were put down in front of its hooves. People took off their coats and their robes and spread them in the way. It made a mosaic of multi-colored profusion.

It was an incredible scene. The people were shouting: